Social Nerdia Podcast: ZIRX is On-Demand Parking

Shmulik Fishman is the co-founder of ZIRX, a startup that wants to solve the problem of parking. Shmulik and his 3 co-founders met at Adap.tv, an adtech company that sold to AOL. After being immersed in a world of digital inventory, the four friends and colleagues decided to address a problem in the physical world - and ZIRX is the result.

Despite being in a completely different side of the transportation equation, some have already compared ZIRX to Uber. If you search for ZIRX online you will find messages like 'Parking Sucks' and 'Never Park Again.' Word is starting to get out about ZIRX as 'on-demand valet.'

"We don't really think of it as valet parking. We're a new way to park your car and retrieve your car when you need it. And it all happens through a phone. We very much think of the app as a way to surface only the information that a user actually cares about."

Parking can be time-consuming, unpleasant, expensive and annoying. The ZIRX team wants to rethink the whole experience.

"When you're parking, you do all the work. You drive to the lot. You take the ticket. You have to fumble through your wallet. You then have to go back there. Walk seven blocks and wait in line...

All these things should happen in the background. Our app allows you to say where and when you want to park; we manage all the logistics around that. Storing it, securing it, and making it available when you need it again, whether that is the same day or the next week. We'll be there, at your command."

We also talked about ZIRX's marketing approach, the company becoming a multi-city operation, and how the team is addressing challenges like limited supply of parking inventory and emerging competitors in order to scale.

You can listen to the entire conversation and follow the Social Nerdia Podcast on Soundcloud.